Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't know if I would want to own anyone other than Harper, so...I'm kinda glad that all the other chars. belong to Square-Enix.

Note: Well... Maybe that'll give you some insight or whatever.

Vincent sat in the shadows, away from the warmth of fire and the fellowship of the group. Thought ran rampant through his head. Over the course of only a few days, he's been addressed as "Sir Auron"... countless times. After everything was explained to him, Yuna's pilgrimage, he was even asked to be a guardian. He'd been told by Wakka that it was so unusual that they hadn't run into any creatures yet...but Vincent thought mostly about what it meant to be a guardian. Such as: what was the fine print, and could he pull out if he wanted or needed to. The chatter from camp drifted to his ears as he thought, and so did the sound of sliding gravel.

He pin-pointed the noise, which had come from his left, down a sliver of road, and if he listened more intently he could just make out footsteps. This person could creep like Yuffie, the ninja girl from his home. Vincent's reflexes moved him before he knew what he was doing as just to his immediate left, gravel crunched under the other person's feet. Cerberus was out in a flash, cocked and aimed at the spot his instincts had chosen.

A gasp came from the shadows ahead of Vincent. Apparently they hadn't seen him before then. The intruder moved just as Cerberus sand, its bullet barely missing its mark

Auron jumped at the sound of the gunshot. "Yuna!"

High Summoner Yuna ran to Auron's side, "I heard. Was it Vincent?"

"It could have been no one else," he answered non-condescendingly.

Wakka, Tidus, and Kimahri appeared beside them and, as Auron dashed off in Vincent's direction, Auron motioned for the other three to follow. The moon illuminated the scene dimly. Auron halted the party as the rest of Yuna's guardians and the summoner caught up with them. Vincent whirled from rock ledge to seemingly smooth wall as shots continued to sound while he spun out of some one else's range. This some one else, they soon discovered, was a woman with hair almost as long as Maester Seymour's. She moved as lightning fast as Vincent, and was armed with guns too. Both were excellent gunmen, missing each other only because they were as good at evading attacks as they were at delivering them. The summoner's party was mesmerized by the violent grace of the two opponents' actions.

Suddenly, after a dash to the left, Vincent stopped and lowered his gun, Cerberus. Even in the relative darkness Auron could see the look of astonishment on Vincent's face, but everyone's entrancement was broken rudely when Vincent took a shot to his left shoulder.

The other person materialized from a shadowy nook, one gun in hand and the other holstered at her side, and in a flash was landing a foot in Vincent's chest, sending him a few feet. The next moment she was in the air and coming down with her foot in the same spot.

Tidus was incredulous. "Why isn't he fighting back?" he questioned Auron as he attempted to rush to Valentine's aid.

"No." Kimahri laid a heavy hand on Tidus's shoulder.

"D'you see Vincent stop there?" Wakka pointed out. "He knows something about that girl, ya?"

"Yes," Auron confermed.

Vincent winced as she landed atop him. His shoulder burned like mad, and the extra pressure wasn't helping it at all, but... "H—"

"Who are you?"

"..." Vincent was paralyzed with abrasive understanding: Harper didn't remember. "Sir Valentine...High Summoner Yuna's guardian." That was all the answer he knew how to give. What else could he say?

"What...?" it sounded as if a dim recognition had stirred in her.

He said again, with more words, "Sir Vincent Valentine."

Harper's eyes popped wide open as the final piece if her memory chinked into place. The three months leading to that point were revealed to her. Kadaj and the others, their "ingenious" plan to get another Sephiroth, Vincent's saving her. "I just... sh..." she went limp and Vincent, ignoring the pain ripping through his shoulder, caught her in mid-fall, setting her down gently on the ground beside him.

Yuna was the first to reach him, "Sir Valentine, your shoulder..." The summoner began the hand movements for a healing spell, but Vincent shook his head. "But..." she began again.

"I know," Vincent cut her off with a stern glance when she was going to say something else. He stood with regret in pain form as he used his left arm to help him, wincing at the unaccustomed pain.

"That's got to hurt though; how can you take it?" And...why did you even give her the chance to get at you?" Tidus asked, looking from the girls limp figure to Vincent.

When he didn't answer, Lulu stepped up behind Tides. "I think a better question would be this: who is she?"

"Harper, the girl from Midgar I had told you about when we first met." Wishing it had been his right shoulder instead of his left so his real hand didn't have to feel his shoulder's insides, he answered an imminent question. "She shot because she didn't know me: something made her forget..." he laughed to himself, surprising the others with what he said next. "I would have been happy if she did know, and shot before she realized."

"But, she could have killed you," Wakka spoke everyone's mind.

Vincent looked at Harper with a contentedness new to him. Peaceful as she seemed then, he knew that when she woke up she'd be in pieces over the whole thing. That's how she was. He looked up at the people waiting for an explanation. Remembering why, he said, "She would have been on her guard."

"Does she know you now?" Auron asked suddenly.

Vincent closed his eyes and opened them after answering, "Yes." He knew what was coming next. After his years as a Turk, how could he not?

"And did you know, Sir Valentine," Auron stressed the title, "that her wounding you would spark her memory?"

Vincent hated the obscure reprimand. "No," he said in a controlled tone.

"What would have happened if you had died?" Auron continued, equally controlled.

"I wasn't going to."

The others began moving off, sensing the tension in the air, but they left Harper where she was. They knew Vincent wouldn't like it if they took her and that, at the moment, he didn't need anything added to Auron.

"You know that?"

Vincent nodded.

Auron was startled. Valentine was turning out to be less and less like Tidus and Wakka than he had at first assumed. He knew Vincent was dead serious, but he wanted to know, "How? How can you know?"

Vincent bit down to keep Chaos from uncontrollably ripping through him. Chaos... Auron had explained "overdrives." "You told me, that when the time is right you can unleash an attack better than all your others..." Vincent had not told them about the "friends" he carried with him. "So can I, but..." he let go his hold on Chaos and pain in his chest made him stagger back. He was able to keep his sentence going as more pain exploded throughout his entire form when wings erupted from his back and unfurled. "...there is one definite difference between us, Auron." Vincent's voice melted away and gave way to Chaos rougher, deeper one. "All it takes, for me..." Chaos, under Vincent's direction, launched himself into the air, catching himself gracefully with a flutter of leathery wings before he could start to fall. "...is anger." Chaos looked down at Auron, who was wide-eyes with alarm, and crossed his arms.

A smaller figure joined Auron. Chaos recognized it as Yuna and came down lightly in front of them both, knowing that Vincent respected Yuna. "Sir Vincent?"

Vincent's respect couldn't keep Chaos from speaking his mind. "Don't 'Sir Vincent' me, Lady Yuna," he growled, annoyed that he had only a little control over what he did. Why Shinra chose Vincent Valentine to be his prison, he couldn't figure out. "Valentine's out of the picture 'till he cools off enough to control me," he spat.

"... 'Out'? Who are you?" Yuna asked, undaunted by his attitude.

The creature gave her and Auron a wicked smile of fangs which was more like a cat baring its teeth. "I am Chaos, and one of Vincent's other sides."

"What?" Tidus, who had walked back to them only a moment ago, asked. "Others?"

"There are four of us others."

"There are five sides of Vincent then," Auron asked, incredulous.

"No," Chaos answered in a condescending tone as his voice changed back to Vincent's, his body slowly following.

Vincent straightened himself and looked apologetically at Yuna, who nodded. "No," he picked up where Chaos left off. "There is only one of me. Chaos is proud and deplores me. Never listen to him when he talks about himself and me—"

"And the others he mentioned?" Yuna tested.

"Gallian Beast, Death Gigas, and Hellmasker. Chaos is the fourth and strongest, but Death Gigas has more endurance."

"And they..." Tidus began.

"Reside in me, in my mind most of the time. I only loose them in battle...most of the time," on that note he shot Auron a glance before he stooped and gathered up Harper, noticing that his shoulder was healed by the transformation.

Auron noticed too.

Vincent, Harper still out in his arms, looked at Auron emotionlessly. "I won't let myself die," he said as he started walking to camp.

"Hey," Tidus caught Vincent's attention and double stepped to catch up with him. "Are you sure about that shoulder?"

Vincent stopped walking and turned to Tidus. "It's fine," he said, noticing Yuna trotting to catch up. Wondering why they cared, he shrugged and told Yuna again not to worry.

"At least let me look when you get a chance moment," she insisted earnestly.

Vincent was amazed. Avalanche cared, but not like Yuna did, or seemed to. The Turks cared because he was one of the best and at that specific time he wasn't expendable. Yuna didn't need him—she had six other guardians—so why did she care? Finally he nodded, "If it would make you feel better."

Yuna drew back in surprise, not expecting consent, but smiled happily before nodding to confirm and walked away in the direction of camp with Tidus.

"Good call man."

Vincent turned and discovered Wakka, who had watched. "Thank you," he said as he tried to position Harper in a way that was possibly more comfortable and less pathetic looking.

"You want a hand with her?"

He didn't need help, but Vincent didn't mind Wakka's company. He nodded. "Alright."

The short walk back to camp was silent, but Wakka had questions about Vincent's "friends" and Vincent knew it. So when Wakka opened the tent-flap for Vincent and turned to leave, Vincent stopped him and made him take a seat inside beside him. After a moment more of silence, Vincent asked abruptly, "What do you want to ask?"

His question startled Wakka. "You have a sixth sense or something?"

Vincent couldn't help laughing at that because it was the first time some one had asked him that. "No. No, I just know people, Wakka," he said deftly unbuckling and taking off his cloak.

"Oh, ok...you sure I can ask?"

"Yes."

Still Wakka hesitated, thinking about what could happen if Vincent got too angry at something...

"I have them under control, Wakka, not the other way around," Vincent said softly as he looked tenderly at Harper.

Wakka uttered a nervous laugh. "Sorry." Vincent nodded to say he didn't care that Wakka was apprehensive. "Chaos, all of 'em, how'd they—"

"Vincent?" Wakka was interrupted byLulu's poking her head into the tent. She was answered with a blank look but a questioning uplifting of maroon eyes from Vincent. "Yuna still wants to check your shoulder."

Vincent nodded ad looked back to Harper, wishingLulu would leave then.

She didn't and, to his dismay, persisted. "Sometime today?"

"She means 'now'," Wakka translated.

Again Vincent nodded and got up to be led byLulu to the center campfire where she said Yuna would be. On their way there, Wakka called back to Vincent the question of should he stay with Harper or not, to which Vincent answered with the cryptic message that he didn't mind.

"Sir Valentine," Yuna stood as he approached.

He couldn't help think that now everyone was edgy around him. "You don't have to call me that," he offered, taking a seat where Yuna's gentle hand directed. Across from them sat a watchful Auron.

"Oh..." Yuna said hesitantly as she pried open a little more the bullet hole in his clothes.

"Here," Tidus said, walking up behind Vincent, "This will make it much easier..." Before Vincent knew what Tidus meant, he found his left shoulder completely barred after Tidus pushed the back of Vincent's shirt over his head, leaving Vincent almost shirtless and extremely uncomfortable as well as annoyed. "Tidus..." he stopped when he saw the astounded look on both their faces. They were staring at his shoulder. It was drenched in blood, but there was no wound.

"How..." Yuna started and began wiping at the drying blood with a damp cloth. When it was all mopped up, she brushed her fingers over the smooth skin.

Vincent wrapped his right fingers over hers, snatching her attention. When their gazes met, he explained. "Chaos. If I am hurt when he emerges, then my body is healed. It is the same way with the others." He released her hand at the creatures mention and she drew back to a normal distance. He knew he still had not yet replaced his shirt, but a question burned more importantly. Vincent looked into the fire, wishing it was in the fireplace in Midgar, and asked, "Am I no longer your guardian, Lady Yuna?"

"What?" she asked back.

Vincent expanded on what he meant. "I kept something from you," he meant Chaos, Gallian Beast, and the other two. "Secrets...do they make me unfit to be your guardian?"

"No," Yuna folded her hands in her lap. "...not unless they are dangerous secrets. Are they?"

"No. Just sad ones...memories. I will be a guardian and protect you to the full extent of my abilities as long as I am not questioned. I will not die so I may live to protect you—"

"Would you die for her?" asked Lulu from across the blaze, in a place even Vincent couldn't see.

She was silenced by Vincent's standing and pulling his shirt back on properly. "No," he said slowly. "I won't need to." He skirted the fire and walked between Auron and Riku.

Those present thought he was going off alone again. Until they heard a new voice whisper Vincent's name and turned to look. There, at the edge of the flickering firelight, stood Vincent, arms encircling Harper's shoulders, comforting her.

Note: Chapter three everybody! R&R!